Castanet

As a local resident of the Silverstar Road area (Jackpine Road) I would just like to mention that over the past year (including last winter season) we have noticed a drop off in service from Argo in plowing the road here.

Yes, being up the road in elevation, and the recent DUMP of snow we got is a factor, but how do people get home from work when there is more than a foot of snow on the roads?

The snow started on Januaruy 7th in the early AM and kept coming until around noon. There was NO snowplow from the time the snow started until the next day at 7:30am!!! My neighbors and I actually had to resort to plowing the road ourselves with our ATV's and one plow equipped Jeep. I am sure this scenario was common on all the roads off Silverstar road over the past day.

If Argo can't keep up to plowing the roads on Silverstar mountain, maybe they need to move some equipment and people to handle the workload better to provide proper service to the area, because it is a high snowfall area after-all. Perhaps the ministry of transportation needs to review their contract with Argo to make sure they provide proper and reasonable service.

Yes, we chose to live here, and yes most of us have 4x4 and good winter tires, but the fact is our high taxes pay for the service we are not getting. Some kids and others up here only have cars. At least in town there is reasonable plowing and sanding/melting service done regularly. Unlike in town or some other locations, snowfall on the mountain is a regular occurrence, and plowing should be done after a snowfall within a reasonable amount of time, or even actually during a heavy snowfall to keep up. I find it hard to believe that anyone would think that one visit by a plow every 24 hours during a heavy snowfall is reasonable! Its come to the point now where we are all surprised to even see the plow come down the road anymore. Has it now come to the point where we can no longer rely on the government services we pay for? Do we now have to regularly plow our own street?

You think anyone out there at Argo or the ministry cares? I would be interested to know... So far, it doesn't seem like it. Typical.

I would just like to add for fairness that I called the local ministry office and talked to a guy there who sounded like he was concerned with this, and he said he is going to talk to them and has noticed a trend. Hopefully there will be adjustments made.

And I hope you all also can find a way to dig through all the snow that has started falling again here this afternoon into tomorrow! Might be a great day of powder up at Silverstar again in the morning!

Sympathy to you and your neighbours , but it is not just the outlaying areas. Today I saw semi's stuck , stopped , and chaining up.......... on Hospital Hill , that's highway 97. Can't say that I have ever seen that before , and I have lived here 45 years.

one has to undertsand how things work.Its not like we have a man and a plow for every road evry time the snow falls
we have X # of men and X # of plows.They plow the most hi traffic roads first then the next level and so on
I strongly suggest to you the road your crying about is VERY low on the most used/popular road way system and as such will see service much less and much slower that a road like silver star or Pleasant valley or 27 street etc

Agree , that is how it works. However ! Over time we have been convinced by the powers that be that plowing during a major snowfall event is a waste of taxpayers money. They prefer to wait till the snow is done falling and then plow once instead of 2 or more times. In my opinion , on an afternoon like today was , every single piece of equipment should be out on the road trying to maintain the main roads , not sitting in the yard waiting for it to stop snowing.
I am sure the guy who was driving the SuperSave B-train tanker that almost didn't make it to the top of hospital hill would agree with me.
Late this afternoon I travelled from the army camp , to vernon square , then back to polson , then out to the landing. I only saw 1 plow truck , and he was plowing the side (access) road across OK Landing from ellison school. ( ??? )
On a more positive note , my street , which is notorious for turning into a gong show whenever it snows seems to be plowed and sanded (by city of vernon) almost immediately when the snow comes , and it is by no means a main road.

Hello!..it was a major weather event !
And being the same day that an Argo plow truck was seen hanging off the hook of a tow truck on SS Road may also point to other issues that the contractor faces , besides the idiotic drivers on the road.
Glad you made the best of the day though.

Of course everything said here is common sense, thus the reason i didnt bother going on about it. I do think service levels were definitely affected by the one machine being out of service. But again, they should have more than two machines working the area on a major snow event day, then one can stay on Ss road and others can work the side roads. But hey, im not the expert. I just see what i see on a daily basis. I can say that service has greatly improved since, so if others have a similar issue, call the ministry, it seems they do listen and work to improve things.

I drove up to Silver Star not long ago during a heavy snowfall. My little FWD car with good snow tires had no trouble getting there and back, but not everyone was so lucky, or careful might be a better word. I saw quite a few vehicles stuck on the side of the road and one or two that went off the road altogether, but what I didn't see was a single snowplow. On the other hand, the little side-street I live on that has almost no traffic sometimes gets plowed twice before the snow even stops falling. One of my neighbours is a city employee, but I'm sure that has nothing to with it...

Anyone suffering from unplowed roads has my sympathy. Up here we call the contracting outfit 'InFerior Roads' and not for nothing, I assure you